The marriage equality law in New York came into effect at midnight. Eight hundred and twenty-three gay couples won a lottery to get married at the first available opportunity, and judges, lawyers and others offered their services immediately, working to sign marriage certificates and waive the 24-hour waiting period it would take to get a license, in order to make sure the happy couples were no longer denied their civil rights for one more minute. Even more couples from around the state have wed since the bill officially became law.
The National Organization for Marriage and the Westboro Baptist Church are in New York to protest these marriages today. NOM is busing in loads of people and the groups are appearing across the street from each other to preach their message of intolerance toward gay and lesbian Americans.
The scene couldn't be more surreal:
Earlier in the morning, six members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., gathered on a corner to shout epithets and wave signs declaring, “Thank God for 9/11″ and other unprintable messages. The church is known for protesting outside of soldiers’ funerals.
One member of the church belted out a song as loudly as she could: “You’re going to the chapel where you’ll see your final do-oo-oo-oom.”
Moments later, the church members packed up their signs, removed their hats, covered with anti-gay slogans, and headed to Brooklyn, where they planned to continue chanting.
As they made their way down the street, members of the crowd serenaded them with chants of their own: “God hates quitters!”
Jeremy Hooper from Good As You has some photographic evidence of this madness:
Some of the buses. Many of them "Rainbow Transit," ironically. (All photos on same block -- 3rd Ave. btw 40th and 41st.)
All photos from Good As You blog.
They are protesting in one city and then packing up and moving along to the next. Spreading their message all across the state on the first day of legal freedom for gays and lesbians to marry the person they love.
Guy in green polo is with NOM.
One wouldn't think the best way to advocate for the "protection" of marriage (from the gays) would be to team up with a so-called church that's holding signs saying "Thank God for 9/11" in New York but it seems this is how far they are willing to go to express their hatred of gay and lesbian Americans. And this from a group who has professed time and time again to harbor no hatred for gays and lesbians. They say it's all about promoting heterosexual marriage, not hate. Brian Brown of NOM has been called "pleasantly sane" and touted as someone regular people could and should listen to.
But this is really what they're all about.
And across the street, Westboro Baptist.
On a basic level these people just hate us and don't want to see us receive the same rights and obligations as everyone else. They are just as ruthlessly disruptive as a group who protests at the funerals of gay kids and soldiers screaming that God hates America.